Whitney Bizjak's EDM310 Class Blog

Sunday, May 5, 2013

In my first post of how I wanted my classroom to be, I said I wanted to focus a lot on literacy with the children and have book clubs for them. Well I definitely still want to do that and there is nothing I would change about what I said but there are some things I would add to it that I learned in EDM310 that would make it more exciting.
I would use podcasting for the literacy part and have the students read books or act out characters in a book for example. I would use Skype so the students could talk to scientists or professors around the world and let them ask educational questions. iMovie was my favorite thing I learned about in this class and I think it is a great source to take to a classroom because it involves the students to use creativity and skills to produce such an exciting piece of work. One activity I will definitely be putting to use in a classroom one day would be having the students bring the technology outside the classroom.
During our time in EDM310 we watched a video of a teacher broadening the spectrum of integrating technology into the classroom and I just found it fascinating. He taught his students a unit on science and space and air and then took them outside, built a real hot air balloon and used technology to hook up a video camera to it so the students could track where the hot air balloon went and how high it got before it exploded. That is one activity I could see myself using in my future classroom because it takes the kids out of their seats and out from behind a computer screen.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Using technology to communicate with my group was a great tool! I used facetime to talk with Whitley and Skype to talk to Roanna. Together we all discussed a time and place to meet to work on our SMARTboard and final project. These were great tools and super helpful. We were able to find the perfect time and made some pretty great projects! YAY GROUP #1!!!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Since my last report on my PLN I have added a few new tiles to my Symbaloo board, which is my Personal Learning Network. These tiles include StudyBlue, Kid-It, edmodo, and voicethread. I have kept the same tiles such as, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TeacherTube, Moodle, delicous, Insagram, and GMail. A few of these tiles I use for social networking only, but others I use for school related projects. I love Symbaloo, it has helped me keep track and keep organized of the many websites and networks that have got me to where I am now. I like the fact that I can find a website that I really like and that gives me great ideas and instead of having to write it down to remember it, I can just add it to my symbaloo board in just one click. This is one project I know I will be taking with me out of this class.

I was assigned Wesley Fryer's blog again and had the privilege of reading some wonderful blog posts he had. He most recent one discussed the advantages of each student having a laptop in the classroom and success with technology. He also added many links and videos of excellent resources. I started by thanking Mr. Fryer for expanding my knowledge on the effects that laptops would have in the classroom. I also thanked him for the links and videos he shared in his post.

C4T Post #2:

In Dr. Fryer's second blog post he shared links and videos to the FOCU$ On Education Conference. He explained that the conference was focused on the importance of funding public education reforms in Oklahoma. I thanked Dr. Fryer for sharing the links to the videos for the conference. I also told him that I was inspired after watching the video.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

In the article, Teacher Knows If You've Done the E-Reading by David Steitfeld, he talks about a online text book that teachers use in the classroom called CourseSmart E-Texbooks. These online textbooks track the students history of when and for how long they read their textbook. It lets the teacher know which students are actually studying and who opens the textbook the night before the test. They know when the students are skipping pages, not highlighting important information, or not even opening the book; they call this an "engagement index".

As a future teacher, I think this new form of technology is extremely beneficial. It highers the rate of students actually studying instead of just cramming the night before the test. It also creates more time for one on one teaching with the students instead of just reading straight from the book during class. If the students read before the class, then you can spend class time discussing the material and answering and questions the students may have.

As a student, I would actually like this form of studying because it would give me a better technique of organizing and keeping track of what I have studied and read over. I like the feature of being able to highlight the important material and the "engagement index" saving it for you to come back for later. It would also give me an assentive to actually study more because I know my teacher would look over what I have done.

If I were to talk to the teacher described in the article I would ask the following questions..

1. Is this strategy of E-Books beneficial in your classroom?

2. Have you seen any progress in your students grades?

3. Have you noticed any glitches in the system?

If I were to ask the students in his class I would ask the following questions...

1. Do you successfully use E-Books to its full potential?

2. Have you noticed a grade improvement since using E-Books?

3. What is your favorite thing about E-Books?

4. What is your least favorite thing about E-Books?

The comment I would leave would be, is this going to help the students after college? Isn't that the goal of college, to help them to prepare for their future. The students should be learning to be independent and responsible for their actions. I believe this would be most useful for high school students but by college I would expect the students to be more responsible.

Monday, April 22, 2013

I had the privilege of reading Baylee G's blog and one of her posts was about the book Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. She explained that her class had just read this book and then explained what it was about and told us that she would recommend someone who was feeling left out or made fun of to read it and then at the end asked the question "who would you suggest this book too?". I started by telling Baylee that I also loved that book and that I agreed I would recommend the book to someone who was feeling blue because it would cheer them up right away. I asked her what other Dr. Seuss books she had read and then ended by telling her to keep up the great writing skills.

C4K #10
Leopold Primary School
Ryley

For Ryley's blog post he told a little bit about himself and the things he liked. He told us he had a crazy cat and loved P.E. and Art class. He then asked if we liked the same things and if so what. I told Ryley that I did not have a crazy cat but I do have a crazy dog named DJ. I asked Ryley what his cats name was. I also told Ryley I loved P.E. and Art class too when I was in school and that I loved creating things in Art. I ended by telling him that he had great writing skills and to keep up the great work.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

This week, Tuesday, we made all of our picture slides for the project introducing the project, each other, our topics, and acknowledgments. On Thursday, we filmed all of our tips and suggestions. We also edited all the slides and videos into the order they appeared on our outline that we made last week. None of the music has been added yet and hopefully the finalization and uploading will be easy to complete next Tuesday. Be ready for a sweet Final Project!

I absolutely loved this video! Brian Crosby is the definition of incorporating the perfect amount of technology into the classroom. Mr. Crosby takes technology to a whole new level. Instead of just having his students sit inside a classroom and play on computers all day, he lets them explore the possibilities of technology outside of the classroom. One particular experiment that he demonstrated that he did with his class was, for a science project implementing atmospheric pressure his students were able to make a hot air balloon, attach a camera/GPS to it and then let it off. The students were able to track where the balloon went to and how far up it went depending on the pressure and with the camera attached they were even able to see the balloon explode when it reached its limit. This is just awesome. Mr. Crosby showed the students that technology can be put to use outside and they were able to get hands on. I prefer Mr. Crosby's technique of teaching to anybody's I have seen so far. He teaches that technology is useful but just sitting behind a computer screen and blogging will not get you anywhere, you have to physically go out into the field and put it to use. Kudos Mr. Crosby!

Blended Learning Cycle

In the video Blended Learning Cycle, Mr. Andersen explains his strategy for a flipped classroom. He blends the concept of online, mobile, and classroom with the five E's.. Engage, Explore, Expand, Explain, Evaluate. He uses this technique to provide a useful source of technology into the classroom. Mr. Andersen also uses a strategy that he calls QUIVERS.

Question

Investigation

Video

Elaboration

Review

Summary quiz

He uses this strategy to get his students more engaged in the assignments. Mr. Andersen says that when he videos the lesson for the day for his students to watch ahead of time it frees up time for him to have more one on one time with students and to actually engage in asking more questions.

I really like Mr. Andersen's strategy for a blended learning cycle. I love his quivers technique. I could see myself using this in my classroom one day. I like the idea of having more time really talking and understanding with the students, instead of spending the whole class time explaining the assignments over and over.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

For my creative assignment I wanted to further expand the abilities of Pinterest. I am an advocate of using Pinterest. Not only has it helped me with finding recipes, craft ideas, and ideas for my future wedding (don't lie girls, you know you do it to) but it also has given me so much information on my field of study. I am actually very proud of my Pinterest account and the way I have it organized and set up. I have a board specifically assigned for my teaching pins, The Teacher Life. For the assignment I would have the students create a Pinterest account, search for lesson plans, bulletin board ideas, organizing the classroom, activities, etc. and pin them to a specific teaching board so that they have quick access to all the wonderful ideas Pinterest has to offer to teachers. Then once establishing a firm teaching board, sharing in a blog post their progress of their board, maybe with a screenshot, and also sharing some of the other inspirational teaching boards they have came across.

My Assignment:

My Teacher Board

Other Inspirational Teacher Boards...

Teaching and Tapas : A second grade American teacher in Spain. I loved this board because she has many, many, many boards organized nicely on different subjects and all the ideas for each one.

Classroom Creativity : I was actually privileged to have taken a few education classes with the owner of this board. I follow Classroom Creativity because she always has some of the best pins for organization and quick lesson activities.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Ms. Cassidy sounds like a fascinating educator that really explores all options of teaching. She seems like the type of teacher who really incorporates the full use of technology into her classroom. There are many techniques of hers that I would consider or try using in her classroom, such as, using the blogs for student portfolios. I really like this because it would allow the parents of the students to go on and see what their child is doing in class at any time they wanted. The parents wouldn't have to wait for the mid-school year open house night to see their child's progress in school.
I have never been an advocate of using all the technology in the classroom but Ms. Cassidy has some great feedback for what her students have done. In the first video we watched of her class, I noticed the students got the chance to Skype with a geologist. That is such a great learning experience and would spark an interest in the students. Another great technique Ms. Cassidy uses in her classroom are Wiki's. She has her students create Wikis with different questions to help them learn about certain things. That is a great collaborative assignment because you get feedback from people from all over the world.
An issue that I could see causing a problem would be the use of computers in the classroom and cheating becoming a problem. Not so much with elementary but I could definitely see it with the high school level. I have actually been substitute cheating at Gulf Shores High School for a while now and have heard from many teachers that the MacBooks have caused a greater number of there students to cheat then in the past because there is no way to monitor the activity being done on their computers the entire time they are in class. Now, in the past year they have actually had a technology specialist come in and set up to where they can pull up the home screen of any MacBook in the school and see what that student or even teacher is looking at and researching. They can also take control of there system and log them out of whatever they were on. This is a great way to control what the students are looking up and doing on their computers but unfortunately they do not have the staff to have someone monitor every computer all day long. So in this case they just do random screenings of the MacBooks.
All in all, I think Ms. Cassidy posed a lot of great ideas for incorporating technology into the classroom. I hope to one day put a few of them into use.

I was assigned Cole's blog to read from Miss Mac's class from Birmingham, Alabama. Cole wrote about what he got for Christmas from Santa. I must say he was a lucky kid! Cole got a 24" flat screen TV, legos, and the book Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. I told Cole that I was sure he was enjoying his new flat screen TV and that I also loved to build things with legos. I also told him that I wasn't familiar with the Pete the Cat books but I look forward to finding them at my local book store and giving them a look.

C4K #6

Mr. Seyfert's Class
Hunter

In Hunter's blog post he talked about hanging out with one of the characters from the book he was reading. I started off by telling Hunter he had great writing skills then continued by asking what book he was reading. I also told Hunter that there were some characters in some of the books I have read that I would like to hangout with as well. I finished up by telling Hunter to keep up the great work and to keep posting because I looked forward to reading more of them!

C4K #7

Ms. Lentine's Harbor 7 Class
Kevin C.

In Kevin's blog, it was actually a homework assignment. I think he was trying to sale something. He talked about the values of a Treadmill and made a really outstanding point of owning one. I started by telling Kevin that after I read his blog post it made me want to go out a buy a Treadmill myself. I also told Kevin he would make a great salesman one day and that he had wonderful writing skills.

C4K #8

Mrs. Kreb's Class Blog
Dustin

In Dustin's blog, he talked about his Religion class and the recent assignment he had to do. They had to pick a bible verse make a drawing and then tell about the verse. Dustin chose a wonderful verse to include in his drawing about Jesus and his disciples. I started by telling Dustin that his blog post was wonderful and that he chose such a great verse to write about. I ended by telling him to keep up the great work because he is doing such a great job as a child of God.

C4T Post #1
I had Ms. Amanda Ooten to read and reflect on today. She did not have any recent blog posts since the last one I commented on so I took the privilege of scrolling down and reading some of her older posts. I read one post about the beginning of her "flipped classroom" experience. She had some great points and shared a lot of interesting values. She also shared an article about "teaching naked" that I thoroughly enjoyed. I commented by saying thank you for all the educational points she provided and for the article. I also stated that I hope her flipped classroom was still a success and that I couldn't wait to read more about it.

C4T Post #2
For my second C4T I chose a new teacher to comment on because I had Mrs. Ooten twice already. The first comment was in C4T post #2 and second is above. I chose Mr. Dylan Robinson because I want to eventually coach high school softball and I figured he would have a lot of great resources. I was right, on the post that I read on Mr. Robinson's blog it was about being informed on new research even being a P.E. teacher. He shared a wonderful link to Dr. Ashley Casey's blog who in return shared many more great ideas. I commented by thanking Mr. Robinson for the link he shared and that I agreed with keeping up to date with new research no matter what field of study your in.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Ok, so after visiting Mr. Spencer's blog and reading some of the comments left by other people about this sketch I found that it is a "spoof" of the "Im a PC, Im a Mac" commercials. Although I understand it is some type of humor dealing with pencil brands, I am still not laughing. I just don't understand it though. I am guessing it would probably be pretty funny though.

I absolutely love Mr. Spencer's writing style for his blog posts. He seems like such a passionate teacher. As I was browsing around and reading some of his other posts I was intrigued by his post 10 Points On Pencils. It was actually quit amusing the way he wrote it but still made a very clear point. Mr. Spencer wrote a list of the things the superintendent did not like about his classroom and sent it to him. They list included the uses of pencils and the effects they have on the students. I liked this post because it grasped the students potential with the use of a pencil. I also liked how he explained that most of the problems that people see with students are much greater than the pencil itself.

I found this post by Dr. Scott McLeod interesting, amusing, and sarcastic. I agreed with some of his points and then highly disagreed with others. When Dr. McLeod was explaining to not teach your kids how to use technology because he is teaching his kids how to use to have a leg up in society, I mean I know he was just trying to get the point across to say that we need to be teaching our kids everything about technology. I do agree that they need to know a certain amount about it because if used the right way it can be extremely valuable but I do not agree with having it take over the classroom. I know I will get scolded for this statement as I have in the past but I will stick by my opinions until I am actually in a classroom teaching and see that computers, cell phones, iPads, iPods, and all the other technology is helping. Yes, I do think it will help teach our students to a certain extent. But there is a such thing as too much of a good thing, right? Interesting post by Dr. McLeod to say the least. I did not find out much about Dr. McLeod even after viewing his other blogs except that he teaches at the University of Kentucky and is the founding director of CASTLE.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Mr. McClung's blog was a great read. His volume 4 2012-2013 version was my favorite. I loved both of his themes on this post, the first being "You Gotta Dance With Who You Came To The Dance With". The lesson behind this theme was that you can't worry about what your peers think of you, you just gotta do whats best and what works for the students. You can't teach for other teachers, you have to teach for your students. Thats who your there for. The second theme was "Challenge Yourself", this one I felt a lot of teachers would benefit from reading because I know a few who do exactly what Mr. McClung posted about. He stated that he was finding himself using the same lesson plans and activities from previous years so that he never had to come up with anything new, but then he noticed his students started to get bored and he found himself lowering his standards. He was thankfully offered the opportunity to teach a new subject which meant all new lesson plans and activities.

Mr. McClung's second blog post I read was 2010-2011. I loved his "Don't Be Afraid To Be An Outsider" section. It was funny and very true! He explains that you do not have to be socialites with your fellow teachers. As long as you have a good relationship with your students your doing ok! At the end of this section he tells us how he plays his music too loud, he eats in the lunch room with his students and never in the teachers lounge, he enjoys keeping up with his students through social media, and likes being immature. That statement really reached out to me because Mr. McClung seems like the type of teacher I would of loved to have when I was in school and the type of teacher I hope I come to be in the future.

What an inspirational teacher. Mr. McClung got me thinking that all possibilities are endless and that you just have to keep going and always cross the line even if you think you've gone too far! I will definitely be adding Mr. McClung's blog to my Personal Learning Network!

Monday, March 4, 2013

C4T Post #1
Mr. Crosby's post was about K-5 teachers being told that they are no longer to teach content area standards in science and social studies because they "teach the Common Core". Mr. Crosby then stated the standards introduced in CCSS ELA for the literacy standards for grade 6. He want to ask the question "How do we help teachers under these restrictions disprove this interpretation? Who can we point to that has authority?" I commented by agreeing with the person who posted a comment above me that stated "Find out where they work, call their boss, and explain it to them." I also stated that I agreed with this person because unfortunately it seems to be the only way around this issue. I also thanked Mr. Crosby for opening this issue up to me because as a future K-5 teacher I had no idea of this situation. I look forward to Brian Crosby's future posts.

C4T Post #2
Ms. Ooten's post was about multiple things such as; her flipped classroom, technology, her AP biology class, and YouTube. Ms. Ooten's blog post was the first "teacher blog" that I actually found informative. She gave much insight into the advantages of flipping the classroom. She also explained that she is on a technology committee where she is in the process of beginning a project called 1:1 (each student has a computer) within the next two years. I think this is great and it really shows her enthusiasm for teaching. I explained to Ms. Ooten that I found her blog extremely informative and that I had been doing some research of my own on the reasoning of "flipping the classroom" and that her blog post was very helpful. I can't wait to read more of Ms. Ooten's posts in the near future! She is inspiring! I would recommend this blog to future teachers any day>> Science Teaching For The Future

Saturday, March 2, 2013

For my PLN (Personal Learning Network) I chose Symbaloo to create my network. I actually found Symbaloo a lot easier to understand and work with than Netvibes. After researching a little more about what exactly a PLN is and watching/reading the links Dr. Strange provided us with I have more knowledge on how to start creating my personal network. I took the time to add links to my Symbaloo network board of people, websites, and resources that I use on a daily basis to help me forward my education about teaching and learning. Some of the links I added were Pinterest (I follow a ton of teaching boards), Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TeacherTube, Blogger, Moodle, and Delicious. I look forward to adding more to my Personal Learning Network. I can not wait to see the changes in my PLN, for learning and teaching are changing every day.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

WOW! I just want to start by saying I truly have an idol in my life now. Dr. Randy Pausch is probably the most amazing man I will ever know, besides my father of course. He has such a love and passion for people and teaching that it is just so overwhelming listening to his lecture. I really wish I would of had the chance to meet this man before his passing. Ok let me step down from idolizing Randy and talk about what legacy he has left.
In this video Randy talked about achieving your childhood dreams and making them come a reality in some shape or form. After achieving all of his childhood dreams he decided he wanted to help others do the same. I love this approach because it shows you the passion he has for helping others. This is a great example to take into my own classroom. Helping students come up with things they want to achieve in life and help them get onto the right track to do so. In this video some of the major points Randy made included taking the time to dream, the importance of good parents in a child's life, and how to put people before materials. These were just a few approaches to the lecture that Randy made and they couldn't be more inspiring. I will definitely use these points to full advantage in my classroom.
One major theme Randy talked about was the "head fake". He mentioned it a few times in the lecture in a literal way and in an even more important way. The first was the usual football term of head fake where a football player would move his head in a certain direction to make everyone think he was going that way but then go in another direction. The second type is the important head fake, it was a tool he used as an educator where students learned but didn't realize they were learning until well into the learning process. I absolutely love this approach and could see myself incorporating this into my teaching skill set. This is such a great way to get the students excited about learning and incorporate fun into the curriculum so that they don't even know their actually learning until they have already engaged in it. This seems to be a good way for students to really learn, instead of just going through the motions of reading out of the book because students are apt to remember the lessons that they had fun while doing.
There is just so much to say about Dr. Pausch and all of his achievements. I could go on for days about him. After watching this lecture, I was so moved by his passion that I did a little research of my own about who Randy Pausch was and all he contributed to the world of education. I was so intrigued. The way he goes about teaching and the processes he puts into his work is one of a million. He has so much passion and energy for helping others that I just hope I am at least half the educator that Randy Pausch was. He has left such an extraordinary legacy.

I posted a comment to Maddie's sweet blog post. She talked about going to the beach, seeing kids eat ice cream, and watching the sea gulls. I responded by saying that I loved the beach and loved ice cream as well. I also told Maddie what a great writer she was and I couldn't wait to read more of her blog posts.

Ms. McKeller's 3rd Grade ClassJalon

"All About Jalon", that was the title of the blog post for the student whom I posted a comment on this week. Jalon talked about what how old he was, when he was born, what his favorite movie is, what his favorite sport is, and that his favorite food was pizza. This student had such great writing skills that I had to let him know. I responded by telling him that my favorite sport was also football and asked him which team was his favorite and that I loved eating pizza while watching it. I ended the comment by letting him know how great of a writer he was and that I could not wait to read more of his blog posts.

Pt. England School Room 13 StudentsJalen

I posted a comment to Jalen's blog which was actually a google docs presentation just like the one we previously did in one of our assignments. Jalen's presentation was all about himself and the things he loved. His favorite singer was Bruno Mars and he loved foreign cars. Jalen also provided pictures for everything. I commented by telling Jalen that we just did an assignment just like his presentation in our class. I also told him that Bruno Mars was also my favorite singer and asked him what his favorite song was. I ended the comment by telling Jalen to keep up the great work and that I looked forward to his future blog posts.

Ms. Vannoy's ClassEthan

In Ethan's blog post he talked about Cops and how they drive fast and that they are good people. He also talks about cops helping people and how they can turn red lights on. I started my comment by telling Ethan how great of a writer he was and that I liked cops too. I always agreed with him and was happy that he knew cops were good people and that they kept us safe. Most people and children especially have different interpretations of cops these days so it was nice to see that Ethan liked cops. I ended the comment by telling him to keep up the great writing skills and that I looked forward to more of his posts.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

After reading the instructions for this assignment I knew exactly what tool I would present. I am currently in Dr. Vitulli's EDU 301 Art Class (one of my FAVORITE classes) and Dr. Vitulli gave us a few art education websites to view and then comment on. There was one in particular called The Artist's Toolkit. This website is designed to integrate art and technology in the classroom. The Artist's Toolkit presents visual elements and principles of art. This website has various interaction tools to let the students design their own artwork using the elements of art. It incorporates the elements of line, color, shape, space, balance, movement and rhythm.

This website would be great to pull up on a SMART Board and let the students each come up and play around with the toolkit. You can also make your own "custom toolkit" for your students to use and work with. You could make your own tool kit with certain elements that you would be working with that week and have the students focus on it and then have some sort of quiz or Q&A about that element afterwards. I would use this tool at least once a week to get the students creative minds flowing about art and the elements that are in our every day lives. The benefits I would expect from using it would be the knowledge of how important art in the world can be. Also, I would hope the students would learn more about the elements and how they are used.

I chose this particular tool because I am an advocate of keeping the Arts in the classroom as much as possible. I have always loved art and hope to one day inspire my students to be able to create art using their imaginations. After having Paige Vitulli as an art professor its hard not to love the Arts. She is such an inspirational, loving, and caring person.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Wendy Drexler's video on what it means to be a "Networked Student" is informative and inspiring all in one. I had never heard of the term "Networked Student" or even "Networked Teacher". This video helped me understand the possibilities of outside online learning for students. My only concern would be at what age level would you start this? I understand the college and even high school level is appropriate but what about elementary and middle? Would this concept be useful or a disaster? Im interested to see the feedback for this. This process is educational though in a way that its helping the students become 'self learners'. Helping them to figure out how to research and come to conclusions on their own. I know when I was in school I was more of a hands on, lecture type of student. I needed my teachers to explain it before I could really dive in because I always thought I would be doing something wrong. But with this way of learning I think it would be good practice for students to be able to create a way of "thinking for themselves" instead of just "going by the book".

In the video, it states that the student creates an online blog to publish his scholarly finds and opinions. I love this idea because it gives the student a chance to create his or her own opinion, which is becoming less and less in the classrooms today. It also helps if other students comment on the posts to further research and conclusions. I also liked the sites that this video presented me too. I didn't know of all of the possibilities of online scholarly research. This is one method I would actually use in my classroom because it gives the students something valuable to take with them throughout their lives because they will always be faced with questions that they do not have the answers to.

"Why does the Networked Student even need a teacher?" The networked student still needs a teacher to help them guide them in the right direction. If a student is faced with a question about right or wrong or even where to find something the teacher is there to provide information about the quality and educational value of being a networked student. I believe with this process the teachers will still definitely be needed because not ALL things can be understood from technology. Some students still might need that one on one action from a teacher to help fully understand something.

Am I ready to be a "Networked Teacher"? I believe with a little more experience with technology and the uses of the internet, I could be a great Networked Teacher. It definitely helps to have more experience and understanding of all the possibilities of learning before you would begin this in a classroom.

Personal Learning Environment

I enjoyed watching the video of "A 7th Graders Personal Learning Environment". It reminded me a lot of what Dr. Strange has introduced us to with our blogs and Google Docs. I find it interesting and intriguing because like the student said it does give the students the ability of freedom to research how they want. Also putting more responsibility on the student to get the work done in a timely manner even though there is the distractions from social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. I really like the assignment the student had in her science class when they got to email a professional scientist and also Skype them about questions related to their field. This project seems like it would get the students more involved and excited because they would be talking to someone credited. The 7th graders personal learning environment and my own personal learning network is much a like. We both research and find things on our own and post them to our blogs. I feel it gives us both a chance of freedom of speech and to think of things in our own way. This also sums up a part of my question in my early paragraphs about if the "Networked Student" would be appropriate in the middle school classroom. What the 7th grader is doing and what a networked student would do is basically the same thing.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Krissy Venosdale, author of the blog "Venspired", took a different approach to 'thinking outside of the box'. In her blog post, If I Built A School, Mrs. Venosdale has a dream that is one for the world to know. Mrs. Venosdale dreams of building a school in which everything is creative, colorful, imaginative, inspiring, but yet educational. The school Krissy speaks of would the most amazing school to ever attend and also to teach at. In her post she announced that the teachers would have their own special parking spots with a sign decorated by a student telling them what they mean to them. So it would be the first and last thing the teacher sees every day throughout the school year. That statement truly brought me to tears. Teachers do need to constantly be reminded how much they are needed. Its so easy for teachers to loose focus and forget the wonderful things about teaching. I see it happen way to often in school systems.
As for me my "dream school" might be a lot like Mrs. Vendosdale's. Every classroom would have something unique about it. From different types of chairs to sit in to different paintings on the walls. We would have class outside on nice days. Field trips would be recommended. Teachers wouldn't be afraid to do things outside of the curriculum, in fact that would be a requirement for teachers upon the interview process. The halls would be decorated with colorful paintings and collages. The students work would be displayed for the whole school to acknowledge. Our science labs would ACTUALLY have science experiments. The grade levels would be non-existence. The students would advance depending on their knowledge and skills. We would have "exploratory classes" once a day and the students would pick any class they wanted to go to depending on their interests, i.e.. kayaking, french braiding, mountain climbing, swimming, etc. The school I imagine would be a place that students would actually want to come to. Not a school that students dread getting up every morning for. That also reminds me, school time would not be from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. School would be at a reasonable 10-3, and there would be a "before 10" program for the parents who need to go to work before the child goes to school that would offer a place for the students to relax and enjoy themselves before the school day starts. This is my dream school.. far fetched, but hey who says dreams can't come true?

Virtual Choir

Eric Whitacre's Virtual choir is pretty inspiring. Who knew technology would ever advance so far as to having 100 plus people from around the world sing together through a computer. When I first began watching this video I was amazed the talent then as I watched more I realized everyone was singing to their computers and this conductor pieced it all together to become one amazing choir. It is astonishing the amount of technology that is consumed in this world. I feel like every assignment Dr. Strange has given us I learn something new about a piece of technology. In a way its really scary because I feel technology is taking over, yes in a bad way. But I do understand that technology has been good for our world and that for the ability of man kind to create such wonderful things as a virtual choir just blows my mind. It really gives people a chance to stay connected from across the world.

Teaching In The 21st Century

In this video that Dr. Strange revised from a blog post by Kevin Roberts, it talks about the tools of technology being used in the classroom for 21st century educators. Kevin Roberts talks about the students engaging in more online work than work from a book where you sit down with a pencil and piece of paper. I have to be honest. After first watching this video I had to go back and watch it a second time because I though I misunderstood what Mr. Roberts was trying to say and took his words out of context, but after reviewing the video again I was not wrong. I disagree with a lot of this video and a lot of what Kevin Roberts wants the 21st century educators to teach. Now don't get me wrong, technology can be a good source to teach from but in moderation in my opinion. As I have expressed in previous blog posts assignment I am not the biggest fan with fully integrating technology into the classroom. I think it will kill creativity by all means. True art such as painting with real paint and drawing with a real pencil and piece of paper will be out the door. Students will not know how to use handwriting let alone cursive. What would happen if for some reason the world lost all technology? Like a glitch in the system went wrong and we never had computers, cell phones, ipods, tablets, smart boards, cameras, etc. ever again. How do you think this new world would function? If these "21st century" teachers solely taught with computers and the internet and no student knew how to research using a real book from a real library then how would students learn? They couldn't. They would be to dependent on technology that they wouldn't even know how to write a letter. Like I said, I am not solely against technology but I am solely against the full use of it in the classroom which is what I got from the views of Kevin Roberts. If Kevin Roberts is right about technology in the classroom, I believe as an educator we will not be needed. I believe that the jobs of teachers will be nonexistent. The internet would be the new teacher and students would teach themselves. I also believe the social ability for students to interact with one another would be gone. Talking face to face would no longer be real and I don't mean talking face to computer to face (Skype). I mean a real one on one conversation with a human being. These are merely my opinions. Nobody can predict the future of what there is to come in the education world.

Flipped Classroom

The idea of "flipping a classroom" is pretty interesting. A lot of questions were raised after I watched the first video but then reviewing the FAQS video helped answer many of my questions. I really do like the flipped classroom procedure because it is a necessary amount of new school technology converged with old school teaching. What I mean by this is that, the students watch the video assignments the night before on their computers and then the next day they come in and collaborate with their peers about what the material is on with the teacher there to answer and sort out any questions. It gives the students the knowledge of computers but also the face time with old school learning and figuring things out by talking it out, not by "googling" it. I would try and attempt this process in my classroom one day. I think it is a positive approach to differentiating the students according to their level of knowledge and learning ability.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Sunday, February 10, 2013

For the first post I read about on the Langwitches blog that Dr. Strange provided us with was Flat Stanley Podcast. This approach for podcasting with children is brilliant! The teacher had her first graders read the book Flat Stanley and then they made their own podcast about all the students being "Flat Stanley's". The students went home to their parents and researched places that their Stanley's would travel too, how they would get their, what they would do at that place, and how they would get back. After listening to the podcast of the first graders I realized that one of the students "Flat Emily" visited the state of Alabama, went to a football game in Tuscaloosa, and then visited the beaches of Gulf Shores. I found that so cute because I am also from Gulf Shores and love going to Tuscaloosa. This was just such a great approach to podcasting in a classroom. Incorporating reading, language, and geography all in one assignment.

For the second post I read about was the Space Real Estate Agents. This was a wonderful podcast for the students because it involved storytelling, creative writing, producers, directors, audio editors, and collaborative team members. In this podcast the students first started off by brainstorming about ideas for a story and then voted on the best storyline. The students were then put into groups and worked on their stories. The teacher also gave them four facts about a different planet for each group to incorporate into their story (since the storyline was voted that the students were going to space). This was a chance for the teacher to incorporate science and astronomy into the podcast.

For my third post I read Long Distance Storytelling. I was intrigued by this post because my boyfriend and I like to travel a lot and I have a three year old nephew that I can't stand to leave for long periods at a time. In this podcast the teacher is reading her five year old niece that lives in Brazil a story. I think its such a great way to stay connected to each other as much as possible. This could even be used in the classroom with your students. The students could read stories and translate them into other languages and publish them for other students around the world to listen to. It would incorporate literature and foreign language skills.

All in all I just wanted to say thanks to Dr. Strange for giving us this inspirational blog post assignment. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of podcasting in the classroom. Even with students as young as first graders.

Friday, February 8, 2013

C4T Post #1
Dr. Fryers first post was about an interview he had with Jackson, an 11th grader at an Oklahoma City Public School who took an online english class last semester. Jackson took the online english class as a 'recovery credit' because he did study abroad in France one semester and it set him back. The interview covered Jacksons discussion of the pros and cons of online classes. I commented on this post stating that I agreed with most of Jacksons views of online classes. I also told Dr. Fryer about the Hybrid classes South Alabama offers and how some of the online time can be hard for students who have a difficult time teaching themselves but how they are also great for time management. I look forward to Dr. Fryers next posts.

C4T Post #2Dr. Fryers second post was about being overwhelmed and fearful of the pace of technology around us. He also quoted futurist, Alvin Toffler who was and is a prophet of our times. Dr. Fryer asked a question "How is the curriculm in your school changing to reflect our dynamic (and yes our revolutionary times) in your career?" I simply responded to Dr. Fryers question by stating that I for one am terrified by all the technology coming up around us at such a fast pace. I also stated that I was fearful of technology taking over the classroom, but also reassured him that I didn't think all technology was bad for the classroom and that to a certain degree it can be beneficial.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

WolframAlpha
"What is the population of China, India, and the United States?" This is the type of question Dr. Strange asked us to answer while visiting the website WolframAlpha. He has asked us to do this Special Blog Post Assignment because some people misinterpreted his "Did You Know?" video.

I found from doing these searches that China and India have a larger population than that of the United States. I also did two more searches asking WolframAlpha what the biggest island was and also the population of Costa Rica. WolframAlpha said that Greenland was the biggest island, which wasn't what I would have guessed so that was surprising to me, and also that the population of Costa Rica is 4.64 million people. I had no idea it was that small!

WolframAlpha would be useful to both my students and I in many ways. We could use the site to make searches about anything in any subject from math, science, to history. I feel like the possibilities are endless for this site. I just have to say I was not a fan of this blog post assignment when Dr. Strange gave it to us. I felt like he was trying to teach us a lesson about misinterpreting his blog video. But after learning about WolframAlpha I am glad he gave us this assignment. I feel like this site can be very beneficial in the classroom.

Gary Hayes
Wow! This website is astounding. I can't figure out how they come up with all of those statistics. Its amazing to see them change so quickly. As for my professional career as a teacher I believe with what these stats have showed me it can only get better. I believe even though we have rising technology and that yes it is kind of taking over, the world will always need teachers. We will always need educators to do the jobs that technology will never be able to. The social interaction with a human being.
I screen captured a shot from Gary Hayes Social Media Counts website of one of the combinations I did. You can see below the social media for a one day time frame. Those numbers blew me out of the water. But what I was wondering is are these stats for the whole world? Or just the United States? Are they for India or China? Canada or Japan? This goes back to Dr. Strange's "Did You Know" video and having to do searches on WolframAlpha website. If these statistics from Gary Hayes' social media count are for the entire world then I don't see them as being that bad, but on the other hang if it just for the United States then we may have a problem. When is technology too much technology? Just one of the many questions we will always be asking.

Friday, February 1, 2013

After viewing the videos, slideshow, and Paige's blog post. I am more enlightened on how to write a proper peer review. Although the videos were funny and made by students they really helped me understand the basics of peer editing. I loved the second video Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes. Not only was the video hilarious it had some great points on the types of students there are when peer reviewing.

When reviewing and posting a comment on my classmates blog I found no grammatical errors nor punctuation errors, instead found great and intellectual thoughts. So instead I commented on her over all post and clarity of it and gave her great compliments. Although, if put in the situation of having to in lack of better words "call out" another student on grammatical or punctuation errors I would politely post it as a comment. Not only will this help the student but also the other students who see the comment. I for one have always been shy when it comes to asking for help especially when writing. I always feel like some of the questions I have are things I should have learned back in grade school. So posting a comment is a great way for students like me to see the educational criticism on someone else's posts and take it in for themselves.

Assistive Technologies
After watching the video The Mountbatten I am amazed by this technology. I would absolutely love to have this machine in my classroom one day. I do not know how to read brail but would love to learn. This machine would be excellent to have in a classroom so that all students, hearing and seeing impaired as well could have a chance to learn equally. If I had this machine in my classroom I would want myself and also my students to learn how to use it so if at anytime an impaired student needed help any other student would be able to help them. It would also give the students an opportunity to interact with the impaired students. I feel like this doesn't happen as often as it should in classrooms today. The hearing and seeing impaired are usually isolated into a classroom of their own.

I am highly fascinated with the technology and machine used for the hearing and seeing impaired. The device used for teaching math in the first video was extraordinary. The usage of brail on the touch sensitive machine to layout blocks for a tactile mathematic approach of a problem was amazing.

I am also intrigued by the iPad use for the blind. The iBooks feature is a great app for the hearing impaired to read and purchase books. Although I do have many questions about this specific iPad. Is this a specific (for the blind) iPad that you have to buy? Or is there some sort of app you buy for your regular iPad? These were a couple questions that I was opposed with after watching this video.

Vicki Davis
After watching Vicki Davis' video Harness Your Students Digital Smarts I was surprised with the different ideas and project she has her students doing. The Flat Classroom website that she another colleague designed is very interesting. Having her students communicate and work on projects with other students around the world is amazing. I'm sure for a student that has to be more interesting and exciting then taking notes and listening to a lecture. Vicki Davis is the definition for collaborating technology into the classroom.

As a teacher, I would hope to be able to bring this much technology into my own classroom without the students becoming dependent on it. Technology can be a great source of learning and also a great integration into the educational social media world that we have today.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Did You Know? After watching Dr. Strange's, Did You Know video. I was absolutely shocked by the stats that were provided for the amount of YouTube videos watched/uploaded, amount of text messages sent a day, the amount of people who have cell phones, computers, etc. This video really makes you think of the way technology has really grown in the past five years. I mean 48 hours of YouTube videos are uploaded EVERY MINUTE! That just seems so unreal, but none the less true.

In reality, I am actually very excited that our world has the ability to use technology to its fullest. I think technology will do more good than bad in this day and age. It has its pros and cons. Pros, it will heighten our minds and further our educations. Cons, handwriting and most creativity will be lost.

Mr. Winkle Awakes Mr. Winkle Awakes was a very fascinating video about a man who slept for 100 years and awoke to find that most everything in the world had changed. Technology had taken over the offices and the hospitals. This is true, technology has really came along way in our world. Everything is somehow connected to the use of technology. Doctors offices, restaurants, dentists, malls, etc. everywhere there is technology. But in the end some things still remain the same, like when Mr. Winkle visits the school and sees that the students are still in desks, still taking notes from what the teacher says.

This video is a good way to show how our world is advancing in all the right ways but when it comes down to it some things that work the way they are just don't need to change. Like the schools for instance, I have ups and downs about integrating computers and technology fully into the curriculums because I don't want to see students get dependent on computers and lose there creativity.

The Importance Of Creativity The Importance of Creativity by Ken Robinson was a pretty enlightening video. I have to say I was kind of skeptical about his statement that "schools kill creativity". At first I was thinking, how so? When I was in school I had teachers who broadened my imagination. But then I got to watching and realized he is right! Especially the part about the arts and dance always being on the bottom of the curriculum. Why is that? Why is art and dance never taught everyday as a high subject? Why is it always math, science, history, and english?

I think a lot of it has to do with funds in the school systems. I think most schools do not have the resources to provide more for the arts. I loved Sir Robinson's story about Julian, his dance friend who the doctors and teachers thought had something wrong with her but the one doctor who just played music for her and realized that she was a dancer and that could think better when she was moving. And now Julian is a world renowned dancer and billionaire. Its remarkable to think that if that one doctor wouldn't have suggested dance class that she would still be thought of having something wrong with her.

Schools and the Future Changes In light of Mr. Winkle Wakes, I do believe that technology will fully integrate school systems all around the world. Technology is the future change in schools. For instance, Baldwin County schools are already integrating MacBooks into every school system. At fourth grade, students get their very own MacBook Air (provided by the school) to keep until they graduate high school. The laptop is to be used in school during class for class work. Most all of their work is done online and sent to their teachers electronically. I have to say once I started substitute teaching for Gulf Shores High School, I could not wrap my head around all the students carrying and using laptops.

When I was in school it was against the rules to bring your personal computers to school, let alone into the classroom. In a way its great that they are integrating technology into students life because almost all careers these days you need to be technologically savvy. But, I also discourage the full use of them all the time. Like I recently stated, I do feel like students will become dependent on technology.

PinterestFirst, I just want to start by saying I am an advocate of Pinterest. It is a huge part of my life. I use Pinterest on a day to day basis. After reading this post about Pinterest and watching the video I know I would use every one of the ideas explained in my classroom. The lesson planning, organization, sharing, and student use are all great ways to integrate in the classroom. I for one love the organization and lesson planning part of Pinterest. I have had a Pinterest for over a year now and I have a "Teaching Board" full of lesson plans, classroom organization, projects, etc. just ready to be put to good use.

20 Best Pinterest BoardsI chose Edutopia, Shannon Smith, and Debbie Fucoloro. I liked these three boards to pin and follow because they were organized very well and always had some great pins. Shannon Smiths board was particularly one that I will be visiting often. She had some great pins for online lesson plans, projects, and blogs. Also, Debbie Fucoloro's was great because it seems to be for beginners. It has alot of easy and quick tutorials for integrating technology into the classroom.

Pinterest would be extremely useful in my classroom because it provides a variety of different tools and resources for everything in the classroom. From, lesson planning and organizing to projects and activities. Pinterest has it all. A few ways for students to use pinterest is the sharing feature. For instance, if a group of students are assigned a project they each could pin things to one board to bounce ideas off of each other. Thanks to Pinterests new feature you can open a board for anyone to pin on and not just yourself.

About Me

Hey, my name is Whitney Bizjak. Im from Gulf Shores, Alabama; a small beach town on the gulf coast. Where I reside with my boyfriend of two years. Im a student at the University of South Alabama, a substitute teacher, and the assistant varsity softball coach of Gulf Shores High.